U.S. patent application number 12/869984 was filed with the patent office on 2011-03-17 for method for printing document of mobile terminal through printer, and mobile terminal therefor.
This patent application is currently assigned to Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.. Invention is credited to Shin-II Kang, Jin-Hyoung Kim, Gene-Moo Lee, Jin-Wook Lee, Hun Lim, Woo-Jin Park, Je-Hyok Ryu.
Application Number | 20110063663 12/869984 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 42829405 |
Filed Date | 2011-03-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110063663 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kim; Jin-Hyoung ; et
al. |
March 17, 2011 |
METHOD FOR PRINTING DOCUMENT OF MOBILE TERMINAL THROUGH PRINTER,
AND MOBILE TERMINAL THEREFOR
Abstract
A method for printing a document of a mobile terminal without a
separate printer setup is provided. The method includes performing
a wireless auto-connection between a mobile terminal and a printer
located near the mobile terminal, and when the mobile terminal
transmits a document to be printed to the printer, the printer
finds a computer capable of outputting the document, transmits the
document to the computer, and prints the document in response to a
print instruction received from the computer. Accordingly, a user
can print various documents stored in the mobile terminal wherever
a printer is located, even without information of the printer.
Inventors: |
Kim; Jin-Hyoung;
(Hwaseong-si, KR) ; Lee; Jin-Wook; (Yongin-si,
KR) ; Lim; Hun; (Yongin-si, KR) ; Ryu;
Je-Hyok; (Suwon-si, KR) ; Park; Woo-Jin;
(Hwaseong-si, KR) ; Kang; Shin-II; (Suwon-si,
KR) ; Lee; Gene-Moo; (Seongnam-si, KR) |
Assignee: |
Samsung Electronics Co.,
Ltd.
Suwon-si
KR
|
Family ID: |
42829405 |
Appl. No.: |
12/869984 |
Filed: |
August 27, 2010 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
358/1.15 ;
709/218; 715/810 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/128 20130101;
G06F 3/122 20130101; G06F 3/129 20130101; G06F 3/1292 20130101;
G06F 3/1247 20130101; G06F 3/1248 20130101; G06F 3/1206
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
358/1.15 ;
709/218; 715/810 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/00 20060101
G06F015/00; G06F 15/16 20060101 G06F015/16; G06F 3/048 20060101
G06F003/048 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Sep 15, 2009 |
KR |
10-2009-0087112 |
Claims
1. A method for printing, by a printer connected to at least one
computer, a document of a mobile terminal, the method comprising
the steps of acquiring document support information from at least
one computer connected with the printer; performing a wireless
auto-connection procedure with the mobile terminal; receiving a
print request including an output target document from the
connected mobile terminal; upon receiving the print request,
selecting a computer to output the output target document by
referring to the acquired document support information; and
printing the output target document in response to a print
instruction issued by the selected computer.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, when
acquiring the document support information from the at least one
computer, mapping the at least one computer according to types of
documents and storing a result of the mapping in a table.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the document support
information includes at least one selected from a group consisting
of a document type, a network address of the computer, a version of
document software installed in the computer, information indicating
whether output of the document is available, and a document storage
area allocated to the computer.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein performing the
wireless auto-connection procedure with the mobile terminal
comprises: when a request for starting an automatic wireless Local
Area Network (LAN) connection procedure is issued, generating and
displaying random information used in common with the mobile
terminal for the wireless auto-connection; and generating and
configuring information required for the wireless auto-connection
using the random information.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, when the
printer is powered on before the document support information is
acquired, multicasting a request for the document support
information to the at least one computer connected on a Local Area
Network (LAN), according to a discovery protocol.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, after
performing the wireless auto-connection procedure: receiving a
printer information request according to a discovery protocol from
the mobile terminal; providing the mobile terminal with a response
message, the response message including a name of the printer, an
Internet Protocol (IP) address of the printer, and port information
of the printer; receiving, from the mobile terminal, a request for
attribute information of the printer; and transmitting a response
to the request, wherein the response includes the attribute
information of the printer.
7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the printer attribute
information corresponds to information required for constructing a
print menu in the mobile terminal, and includes at least one
selected from a group consisting of state information of the
printer, a type of a document that can be output, and an
output-related option.
8. A method for printing, by a mobile terminal, a document of the
mobile terminal through a printer connected with at least one
computer, the method comprising the steps of: performing a wireless
auto-connection procedure with the printer, wherein the printer
manages document information in which a computer available for
output according to each document type is mapped; and transmitting,
when the wireless auto-connection procedure is completed a print
request including an output target document to the printer, in
order for the printer to select a target computer by referring to
the document information.
9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein performing the
wireless auto-connection procedure with the printer comprises:
acquiring random information used in common with the printer for
the wireless auto-connection when a request for starting an
automatic wireless Local Area Network (LAN) connection procedure is
issued; and generating and configuring information required for the
wireless auto-connection using the random information.
10. The method as claimed in claim 8 further comprising, after
performing the wireless auto-connection procedure: transmitting a
request for printer information to the printer according to a
discovery protocol; and receiving a response message, wherein the
response message includes a name of the printer, an Internet
Protocol (IP) address of the printer, and port information of the
printer.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising, after
receiving the response message: requesting the printer to send
attribute information of the printer; and receiving a response to
the request, wherein the response includes attribute information of
the printer.
12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the printer
attribute information corresponds to information required for
constructing a print menu in the mobile terminal, and includes at
least one selected from a group consisting of state information of
the printer, a type of a document that can be output, and an
output-related option.
13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the print request
including the output target document includes a print option set
through the print menu.
14. A mobile terminal for outputting a document of the mobile
terminal through a printer connected with at least one computer,
the mobile terminal comprising: a wireless auto-setup module for
performing a wireless auto-connection procedure with the printer,
wherein the printer manages document information in which a
computer available for output according to each document type is
mapped; a discovery module for performing a discovery operation
with the connected printer; a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for
providing a print menu, the print menu being used for selecting a
target document to be output and selecting a print option; and a
printing agent module for, when the output target document and
print option are appointed through the print menu, transmitting a
print request including the output target document to the printer
for enabling the printer to select a target computer by referring
to the document information.
15. The mobile terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein the
discovery module acquires printer information including a name of
the printer, an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the printer, and
port information of the printer, by a discovery protocol, and
wherein the discovery module transmits the acquired printer
information to the printing agent module.
16. The mobile terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein, after
acquiring the printer information, the printing agent module
requests the printer to send attribute information of the printer,
receives a response comprising attribute information of the printer
according to the request, and transfers the response to the
GUI.
17. The mobile terminal as claimed in claim 16, wherein, the GUI
constructs the print menu based on the received printer attribute
information, the print menu including at least one print option
selected from a group consisting of state information of the
printer, a type of a document that can be output, color/black &
white setup, and horizontal/vertical setup.
Description
PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C.
.sctn.119(a) to an application filed in the Korean Industrial
Property Office on Sep. 15, 2009 and assigned Serial No.
10-2009-0087112, the contents of which are incorporated herein by
reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and
method for printing a document of a mobile terminal, and more
particularly to an apparatus and method for enabling a user to
print the document through a printer, via wireless communication of
the mobile terminal, and without requiring a separate printer setup
procedure.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] Generally, in order for a desktop personal computer
(hereinafter, referred to as a computer) to print a document via a
printer, a document file, application software capable of reading
the document, and driver software suitable for the particular
printer model and the operating system are requested. Therefore,
when the user issues a document output request, a computer reads
and analyzes a document file through application software and
generates, through a Graphical Device Interface (GDI) a document
image that has a form suitable for a printer to which the document
image is to be output. After reading and analyzing the document,
the computer transmits data of the document image to the printer
through a printer driver, thereby printing the document.
[0006] Unlike desktop personal computer environments such as
described above, a mobile terminal such as a cellular phone cannot
use the same application software as that used in the computer.
Since mobile terminals are designed to be carried by users, the
performance of mobile terminals is lower than the performance of
desktop personal computers, and mobile terminal operating systems
are different from desktop computer operating systems in most
cases. More specifically, mobile terminals are more limited than
desktop personal computers, with respect to implementing
application software. Therefore, such mobile environments,
dedicated viewer software capable of only viewing documents is used
to check various documents.
[0007] In order to output a document stored in a mobile terminal,
the mobile terminal connects to a computer. To this end, indirect
and direct connection schemes are used. The indirect connection
scheme includes directly inserting an external storage device into
the mobile terminal, copying a desired document into the external
storage device, bringing the copied document of the external
storage device into the computer, and then outputting the copied
document. The direct connection scheme includes outputting the
document using a separate data cable or a wireless local area
connection scheme. However, using an external storage device or a
data cable is inconvenient for a user because the user must perform
a connection task, and using a wireless local area connection
scheme requires the user to be aware of the way of using software
for wireless connection.
[0008] As described above, a conventional mobile terminal uses
dedicated viewer software in order to read a computer document.
However, when using dedicated viewer software, since the number of
formats for documents has already been determined, a user of the
mobile terminal cannot view a corresponding document if the mobile
terminal does not have the same viewer software for supporting a
document format of document software, as that in the computer.
Document formats may frequently change due to version upgrades
according to enhancement of functions of document software.
Therefore, if dedicated viewer software is not rapidly updated, the
dedicated viewer software may not be used with updated document
formats. Although dedicated viewer software is used to address the
above-described absence of mobile versions of document-related
software, such dedicated viewer software cannot support all
document formats used by computers. It is also necessary to install
a printer driver in order to print a document. However, since
mobile terminals have no fixed printer for usage, unlike computers,
a mobile terminal must find and install a suitable printer driver
every time a document is to be printed. Even in the above-described
method of connecting a mobile terminal and a computer, a user
passes through a setup procedure of inputting, step-by-step,
information for a wireless communication connection in order to
establish a wireless local area communication, which is
inconvenient. It is inefficient for a user to input pieces of
information items, one-by-one, which is very inconvenient for users
who must frequently change setup due to frequent movement.
[0009] Therefore, a need exists for a method for enabling a mobile
terminal to simply establish a wireless connection with a printer
when the mobile terminal is located near the printer, and to print
a desired document, even without installing a printer driver for
document printing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve at
least the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and
the present invention provides an apparatus and method for printing
documents of a mobile terminal, even without application software
corresponding to each document and a separate printer setup
procedure, such as installing a printer driver or other similar
procedures.
[0011] In addition, the present invention provides an apparatus and
method for enabling the user to easily connect a mobile terminal to
a printer using a wireless communication function of the mobile
terminal, and to print documents of the mobile terminal using the
printer.
[0012] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there
is provided a method for printing, by a printer, a document of a
mobile terminal, the printer being connected with at least one
computer. The method includes acquiring document support
information from at least one computer connected with the printer;
performing a wireless auto-connection procedure with the mobile
terminal; receiving a print request including an output target
document from the connected mobile terminal; selecting a computer
to output the output target document by referring to the acquired
document support information when receiving the print request; and
printing the output target document in response to a print
instruction issued by the selected computer.
[0013] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention,
there is provided a method for printing, by a mobile terminal, a
document of the mobile terminal through a printer connected with at
least one computer. The method includes performing a wireless
auto-connection procedure with the printer, wherein the printer
manages document information in which a computer available for
output according to each document type is mapped; and transmitting
a print request including an output target document to the printer
in order for the printer to select a target computer by making
reference to the document information when a connection with the
printer is completed.
[0014] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention,
there is provided a mobile terminal for outputting a document of
the mobile terminal through a printer connected with at least one
computer. The mobile terminal includes a wireless auto-setup module
for performing a wireless auto-connection procedure with the
printer, wherein the printer manages document information in which
a computer available for output according to each document type is
mapped; a discovery module for performing a discovery operation
with the connected printer; a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for
providing a print menu, the print menu being used for selecting a
target document to be output and selecting a print option; and a
printing agent module for, when the output target document and
print option are appointed through the print menu, transmitting a
print request including the output target document to the printer
for enabling the printer to select a target computer by referring
to the document information.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the
present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed
description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in
which:
[0016] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for network
printing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0017] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a printing procedure
according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0018] FIG. 3 is an operational flowchart further illustrating a
discovery and printable document registration procedure illustrated
in FIG. 2, according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIGS. 4 and 5 are operational flowcharts further
illustrating a wireless auto-connection procedure illustrated in
FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
[0020] FIG. 6 is an operational flowchart further illustrating a
discovery and document output procedure between a mobile terminal
and a printer illustrated in FIG. 2, according to an embodiment of
the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0021] Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention
are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the
following description, the same elements are designated by the same
reference numerals although they are shown in different drawings.
In addition, in the following description of the present invention,
a detailed description of known functions and configurations
incorporated herein are omitted where a detailed description
thereof may make the subject matter of the present invention
unclear.
[0022] The present invention provides a method for printing a
document of a mobile terminal, even without a separate printer
setup procedure. To this end, an embodiment of the present
invention includes performing a wireless auto-connection between a
mobile terminal and a printer located near the mobile terminal, and
when the mobile terminal transmits a document to be printed to the
printer, allowing the printer to find a computer capable of
outputting the document and to transmit the document to the
computer. Thereafter the printer prints the document in response to
a print instruction received from the computer. Accordingly, the
user can print various documents stored in the mobile terminal
wherever a printer is located, even without information of the
printer.
[0023] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for network
printing according to an embodiment of the present invention. As
illustrated in FIG. 1, a system for printing a document of a mobile
terminal includes a mobile terminal 10, a printer 20 for printing
documents, and at least one computer 30, 40, and 50 connected with
the printer 20 by a local area network (LAN).
[0024] The mobile terminal 10, which may be a cellular phone or
another similar device, performs a wireless connection operation
with the adjacent printer 20 using a wireless local area
communication scheme, and transmits a document to be printed to the
printer 20 while sending a print request when the mobile terminal
10 is connected with the printer 20. The mobile terminal 10
includes a wireless auto-setup module 102, a discovery module 104,
a printing agent module 106, and a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
108.
[0025] The wireless auto-setup module 102 functions configure a
wireless auto-connection between the mobile terminal 10 and the
printer 20.
[0026] The discovery module 104 finds a printer located near the
mobile terminal 10. The discovery module 104 multicasts a printer
discovery request, and then obtains a name, an Internet Protocol
(IP) address, port information, etc. of a printer targeted for
connection from a response to the discovery request when receiving
the response. In the present example, the mobile terminal 10
obtains information form the printer 20. The information of the
printer 20, obtained as described above, is used to transmit a
document to be printed to the printer 20.
[0027] The printing agent module 106 communicates with a printing
manager module 114 of the printer 20, and transmits/receives and
manages various state information of the printer 20. More
specifically, the printing agent module 106 manages state
information of the wirelessly-connected printer 20, such as an
online state, an offline state, a power on/off state, a paper feed
state, etc. The printing agent module 106 also issues a document
print request to the printer 20, and checks whether a document to
be printed can be printed by inquiring the printer 20 for
information about whether the printer 20 can print the document and
receiving a response to the inquiry. The printing agent module 106
requests and acquires information on various attributes, e.g., the
number of copies, a paper type, a page, color/black & white,
etc., that are used in printing. The printing agent module 106
transmits acquired attribute information to the GUI 108. When print
option information and a print target document is selected by the
user through the GUI 108, the printing agent module 106 transmits
the print option information together with the print target
document to the printer 20.
[0028] Based on attribute information received from the printing
agent module 106, the GUI 108 provides a user with information on
the state of a wirelessly-connected printer, a selected number of
copies, a selected paper, whether the printer can print a document,
and other configurable print options. The user can also select a
print-target document through the GUI 108.
[0029] The printer 20 includes a wireless auto-setup module 110, a
discovery module 112, and the printing manager module 114.
[0030] The wireless auto-setup module 110 configures a wireless
auto-connection with the mobile terminal 10, similarly to the
wireless auto-setup module 102 of the mobile terminal 10. Such a
wireless auto-connection procedure will be described in detail
hereinbelow.
[0031] Similarly to the discovery module 104 of the mobile terminal
10, the discovery module 112 provides a response including
information on its own name. IP address, port, etc. upon receiving
the discovery request from the mobile terminal 10.
[0032] The printing manager module 114 manages target computers 30,
40, and 50 capable of outputting documents through the current
printer 20 in the form of a table by mapping the computers 30, 40,
and 50 according to types of documents. Such a table may have a
structure as illustrated in Table 1 below, but the present
invention is not limited thereto.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Target Output Type of computer Software
available/ Allocated No. document address version unavailable area
(Free) 1 doc 192.168.0.10 7.0 Output 115 GB available 2 doc
192.168.0.15 5.0 Output 50 MB unavailable 3 xls 192.168.0.110 7.0
Output 663 MB available 4 ppt 192.168.0.10 7.0 Output 115 GB
available 5 gul 192.168.0.20 12 Output 800 MB available . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
[0033] As shown in Table 1, contents of the table include document
support information, such as a type of each document (i.e., a file
extension), a network address of each computer connected with the
printer 20 in a local area network, a version of each document
software installed in each computer, information regarding whether
document output is available, and information regarding a document
storage area allocated to each computer, etc.
[0034] The printing manager module 114 also receives a document
requested for printing by the user, from the printing agent module
106 of the mobile terminal 10, finds a computer capable of
outputting the received document by referring to a table such as
Table 1, and then transmitting the received document to the found
computer.
[0035] As described above, a printer auto-connected with a mobile
terminal prints a document to be printed through a computer
corresponding to the document among computers connected with the
printer by a network, so that the mobile terminal can print a
desired document, without installing a printer driver and
application software corresponding to each document.
[0036] The first computer 30 includes a discovery module 120, a
print control module 122, a document control module 124, and a
storage 126. The following description of the configuration of the
first computer 30 is provided as an example; the configuration and
operation of the second and third computers 40 and 50 are the same
as those of the first computer 30.
[0037] The discovery module 120 performs a discovery operation of
the first computer 30 to find the printer 20. The discovery module
120 also registers information regarding types of documents that
the first computer 30 can output, a network address, an area
allocated to accommodate documents, etc., which are collected by
the document control module 124 of the first computer 30 that is a
local computer, with the printing manager module 114 of the printer
20.
[0038] The document control module 124 searches for document
software installed in the first computer 30, and manages types of
documents that can be output by the first computer 30. In the
present example, information managed by the document control module
124 includes a type of each document (i.e., a file extension), a
name of each software, a version of each software, an installation
position of each software, etc. Such management information may
have a table structure as illustrated in Table 2 below, but the
present invention is not limited thereto.
TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Type of No. document Name Version Position
of software 1 doc MS Word 7.0 C:\Program Files\Word.exe 2 xls MS
Excel 7.0 C:\Program Files\Excel.exe 3 ppt MS PowerPoint 7.0
C:\Program Files\Powerpoint.exe 4 gul HunMinJeongEum 12 C:\Program
Files\Hun.exe 5 hwp Hangul2007 2007 C:\Program Files\Hwp.exe . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
[0039] The document control module 124 also receives an output
target document and an output option set by the user from the
printing manager module 114 of the printer 20, and stores the
received output target document and output option in the storage
126. In addition, the document control module 124 performs document
security-related operations, such as deletion, copy protection,
modulation protection, etc., or a document
[0040] The print control module 122 applies the received output
option through an output function of document software, and
controls the printer 20 to print the document.
[0041] FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a printing
procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. More
specifically. FIG. 2 illustrates a procedure in which, when the
mobile terminal 10 wirelessly auto-connects with the printer 20 and
transmits a document to be printed to the printer 20, the printer
20 finds a computer corresponding to the document and requests the
found computer to print the document.
[0042] Referring to FIG. 2, when the printer 20 is powered on, the
printer 20 performs a discovery operation of searching for one or
more computers 30 and 40 connected by a LAN using a predetermined
discovery protocol, identifies documents that can be output from
the searched computers 30 and 40, and registers documents that can
be output from each computer 30 and 40 in steps 200 and 205. The
procedure of performing a discovery operation between the printer
and the computer and registering documents that can be output in
steps 200 and 205 is described detail hereinbelow with reference to
FIG. 3.
[0043] In step 210, a wireless auto-connection procedure is
performed between the mobile terminal 10 and the printer 20.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for
easily achieving a wireless connection is provided for improving
convenience for a user. Such a wireless auto-connection procedure
is described hereinbelow with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIGS. 4
and 5 are flow diagrams explaining a wireless auto-connection
procedure in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0044] When the mobile terminal 10 and the printer 20 have been
connected with each other through step 210, a discovery operation
is performed in step 215. Through the discover operation, the
mobile terminal 10 can obtain attribute information of the printer
20, and can report a state of the printer 20 based on the obtained
attribute information. When the user of the mobile terminal 10 has
selected a print option and a document to be printed, the mobile
terminal 10 transmits the document to be printed to the printer 20
in step 220. In the present example, a print option selected by the
user is transmitted, together with the document, and the printer 20
finds a computer capable of outputting the document by referring to
a table such as Table 1. If the printer 20 has found the second
computer 40 as a computer corresponding to the document (i.e.,
capable of outputting the document), the printer 20 transmits the
document to the second computer 40 in step 225. The second computer
40 transmits an output instruction to the printer 20 in step 230,
so that the printer 20 prints the document.
[0045] As described above, according to an embodiment of the
present invention, the printer 20 directly finds a target computer
suitable for document output among computers connected with the
printer 20 by a LAN, and requests the found computer to output a
document. Accordingly, the mobile terminal 10 is not required to
install a separate printer driver to use the printer 20, and can
print various types of documents stored in the mobile terminal 10
because a print request is sent to a computer having application
software corresponding to a document to be printed, among computers
connected with the printer 20 by a LAN.
[0046] In order to print various types of documents, as described
above, the printer 20 should be aware of information regarding
documents supported by each computer 30, 40, and 50. For this
reason, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a
procedure of performing a discovery operation between a printer and
a computer and registering documents that can be output is
provided, as described in steps 200 and 205. Such a procedure is
described as follows with reference to FIG. 3, wherein an operation
performed between the printer 20 and the first and second computers
30 and 40 is explained as an example.
[0047] In step 300, the discovery module 112 of the printer 20
multicasts a request signal for requesting each computer 30 and 40
to provide information regarding documents that can be output by
the first and second computers 30 or 40, to the computers 30 and 40
connected by a LAN using a discovery protocol. The printer 20
transmits such a request in order to identity document output
support information for each of the first and second computers 30
and 40. The request is transmitted to the discovery modules 120 and
130 of the first and second computers 30 and 40, respectively. Each
discovery module 120 and 130 inquires each document control module
124 and 134, respectively, about a list of printable documents in
steps 305 and 310, so that each of document control modules 124 and
134 acquires application information in steps 315 and 320,
respectively. The application information represents document
information, including types of documents supported by each
computer, the version of document software installed in each
computer, whether output is available or unavailable, and a
document allocation area that can be accommodated. Thereafter, when
each document control module 124 and 134 transmits the document
information to each discovery module 120 and 130 in steps 335 and
340, each discovery module 120 and 130 generates and transmits a
response message including the document information to the printer
20 in steps 345 and 350. In the present example, the response
message includes a network address, in addition to the document
information.
[0048] As described above, each computer 30 and 40 provides the
printer 20 with document support information, including types and
versions of documents supported by the computer, a document
allocation area that can be accommodated, whether output is
available or unavailable, a network address, etc., using a
discovery protocol, in advance in response to a printable document
information request. If a third computer 50 is powered on after the
discovery operation has been completed, the discovery module of the
third computer 50 may directly register information regarding
documents supported by the third computer 50 with a previously
registered printer 20.
[0049] When the printer 20 receives response messages including
each piece of document information from each of first and second
computers 30 and 40 through the aforementioned steps, the printer
20 generates a table such as Table 1 based on each piece of
received document information. The table is used to find a computer
that can output a document received from the mobile terminal
10.
[0050] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a
method for enabling the user to easily connect the mobile terminal
10 and the printer 20 using a Wireless Auto Setup procedure, i.e. a
wireless auto-connection setup procedure is provided. Such a
wireless auto-connection procedure corresponding to step 210 in
FIG. 2 is described in detail as follows with reference to FIGS. 4
and 5.
[0051] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a wireless auto-connection
procedure using a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) scheme among wireless
local area communication schemes, wherein a Service Set IDentifier
(SSID) is required for WiFi communication between the mobile
terminal 10 and the printer 20, a security key is required for
authentication and encryption, an IP address must be set for IP
communication, and a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) key value is
required, since authentication and encryption are performed in a
WEP scheme. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a
scheme of automatically generating and setting up all the
information required for wireless connection is used. Specifically,
an SSID, a security key, an IP address are automatically generated
using the same information input by a user between the mobile
terminal 10 and the printer 20. According to alternative
embodiments of the present invention, random information may be
used instead of the same information. In this case, the random
information may be a random number that is randomly generated in
the mobile terminal 10 and the printer 20. Through this procedure,
it is possible to conveniently and automatically connect the mobile
terminal 10 to the printer 20 without requiring a user to input
each piece of information for wireless LAN connection every time.
Due to the characteristics of random information that changes for
every connection attempt, it is possible to obtain a more enhanced
security characteristic.
[0052] Referring to FIG. 4, the mobile terminal 10 and the printer
20 execute the same wireless connection software, in which a WiFi
connection setup begins in the mobile terminal 10 and the printer
20, respectively, according to a user input. When initiation of
such a wireless LAN auto-connection procedure is requested, the
printer 20 generates and displays random information that is used
in common with the mobile terminal 10, on a display unit of the
printer 20 for the wireless auto-connection, in step 400. The
mobile terminal 10 displays a random number on the display unit of
the printer 20, and receives user input of the random number of the
printer 20 in step 405. Such a random number is used to generate
and set up information required for a wireless auto-connection.
Specifically, as shown in steps 410 and 415, an SSID, a WEP, etc.
is automatically generated and set up with the respective random
numbers using the same hash function, thereby completing a WiFi
connection.
[0053] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a wireless auto-connection
procedure using a BLUETOOTH.RTM. (BT) scheme among wireless local
area communication schemes, wherein each of the mobile terminal 10
and printer 20 generates a device name and a Personal
Identification Number (PIN) code with a random number, such as in
FIG. 4, using the same hash function. When a Bluetooth connection
setup begins in the mobile terminal 10 and the printer 20, the
printer 20 generates and outputs a random number in step 500, and
then the user sees and inputs the random number through the mobile
terminal 10 in step 505. Then, the printer 20 performs a device
name setup procedure and a PIN code auto-generation/setup procedure
using the random number in steps 510 and 515, respectively, while
the mobile terminal 10 performs a printer discovery operation and a
PIN code auto-generation/setup procedure using the random number in
steps 520 and 525, respectively. Accordingly, the user is only
required to input a random number in order to automatically achieve
a wireless connection between the mobile terminal 10 and the
printer 20.
[0054] Hereinafter, a discovery and document output procedure
between the mobile terminal and the printer, which corresponds to
steps 215 to 230 in FIG. 2, is described in detail as follows with
reference to FIG. 6.
[0055] Referring to FIG. 6, a user may begin a network printing
function through a "print" menu provided by the GUI 108. When such
a beginning request is input to the mobile terminal 10, the
discovery module 104 of the mobile terminal 10 executes a discovery
protocol in step 600, thereby requesting a printer discovery from
the discovery module 112 of the printer 20. For such a request, the
discovery module 104 of the mobile terminal 10 multicasts a
DISCOVERY_PRINTER message. Upon receiving such a DISCOVERY_PRINTER
message, the printer 20 transmits a RESPONSE_PRINTER message, which
is a response message including printer information, such as its
own printer name, IP address, port information, etc., to the
discovery module 104 of the mobile terminal 10 in step 605. The
discovery module 104 transmits the printer information, which has
been acquired through such a discovery procedure, to the printing
agent module 106 in step 610.
[0056] The GUI 108 transmits a PRINTING_CAPABILITY_REQUEST message
for requesting attribute information of the printer 20 from the
printing agent module 106 in step 615. Such an attribute
information request is used to prepare a "print" menu, which
enables the user to check the state of a printer, and then to
configure a desired option.
[0057] Accordingly, the printing agent module 106 transmits the
PRINTING_CAPABILITY_REQUEST message to the printing manager module
114 of the printer 20 in step 620 in order to request attribute
information. The printing manager module 114 responds by
transmitting a PRINTING_CAPABILITY_RESPONSE message corresponding
to the attribute information request in step 625. Such a response
message includes attribute information requested by the mobile
terminal 10. Here, the attribute information represents various
information related to printing, and includes types of printable
documents, the state of the printer 20, and information on various
options which can be set.
[0058] Upon receiving the PRINTING_CAPABILITY_RESPONSE message, the
printing agent module 106 transfers the
PRINTING_CAPABILITY_RESPONSE message to the GUI 108, in step 630.
The GUI 108 provides a "print" menu based on received attribute
information. Such a "print" menu includes various option functions,
including state information of the printer, types of printable
documents, color/black & white setup options,
horizontal/vertical setup options, etc. When a print target
document and various print options have been appointed through the
use of the "print" menu, the GUI 108 transmits the print target
document to the printing agent module 106 using a SELECT_DOCUMENT
message in step 635. The printing agent module 106 combines and
transmits the document and the appointed print options through the
use of a PRINT_REQUEST message in step 640.
[0059] Through such a PRINT_REQUEST message, the print target
document, which has been combined together with the appointed print
options, is transmitted to the printing manager module 114 of the
printer 20. The printing manager module 114 selects a computer
capable of outputting the document by referring to a table such as
Table 1 in step 642. More specifically, the printer 20 compares a
type of a received document, a capacity of the received document, a
right of use, etc. with corresponding information in a
document-computer mapping table such as Table 1, and selects a
computer capable of outputting the received document. When the
printer 20 selects the first computer 30, the printing manager
module 114 transmits a PRINT_REQUEST message to the document
control module 124 of the first computer 30 in step 650, thereby
transmitting the document and print options to the document control
module 124.
[0060] Upon receiving the PRINT_REQUEST message, the document
control module 124 stores the document in a local storage area of
the storage 126 in step 655, and then notifies the print control
module 122 of the position of the stored document and the print
options through the use of the PRINT_REQUEST message, in step 660.
The print control module 122 executes an application corresponding
to the document or an output API of the application by applying the
application or output API to print options, by making reference to
a document-application table such as Table 2, so that the printing
manager module 114 of the printer 20 can print the document.
Accordingly, the print control module 122 transmits a PRINT message
including a print image to the printing manager module 114 in step
665, so that actual printing is executed through a printer
driver.
[0061] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a user
can print various documents stored in a mobile terminal wherever a
printer is located. In addition, the user can print a document of
the mobile terminal without information of the printer, and can
immediately obtain a printed document, because a document print
instruction is issued in a state where the mobile terminal is
located near the printer. Accordingly, it is not necessary for the
user to find a document application and to install a printer driver
suitable for a corresponding printer every time a document is
printed, so that the convenience of the user is enhanced. In
addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a
method for simply achieving a wireless connection between a mobile
terminal and a printer is provided, so that the user can easily
connect the mobile terminal and the printer.
[0062] While the present invention has been shown and described
with reference to certain embodiments thereof; it will be
understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form
and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit
and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not to be limited by the
above embodiments but by the claims and the equivalents
thereof.
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